Economic & Financial Issues are still the biggest problems facing Australia (39%, down 1%) and the World (34%, up 1%). Unemployment (11%, up 2%) – now equal record highest as Toyota, Alcoa and Telstra all make significant job-cuts in recent weeks

In Australia, a cross-section of 664 men and women aged 14 or over were interviewed by telephone on the nights of February 4-6, 2014. Respondents were asked: “Firstly, what do you think is the most important problem facing the World today?” and “What do you think is the most important problem facing Australia today?”

In February 2014, Australians still believe Economic & Financial issues are the most important set of problems facing Australia (39%, down 1% since October 2013) and the World (34%, up 1%) according to the latest Roy Morgan Research.

Australian views on Problems facing Australia

When asked about the most important problem facing Australia, Economic & Financial issues are named by 39% of Australians (down 1% since October 2013). This includes the Economy, Economic problems and Interest Rates 12% (down 2%), Unemployment 11% (up 2%) – now at its equal record highest since this survey began in 2005, Poverty and the Gap between the rich and poor 4% (up 1%), Foreign Ownership and Investment 2% (up 1%) and Housing affordability 2% (unchanged). In this latest survey no respondents mentioned the Carbon Tax.

A group of issues labelled Religion/ Immigration/ Human Rights are named by 16% (down 1%) of Australians including the related policy issues of Refugees and Asylum seeker problems 9% (unchanged) and Immigration/ Immigration policy 2% (down 1%). Also mentioned were Aboriginal Issues/ Health/ Rights 2% (up 1%). In addition, the issue of Politics and Leadership was named by 11% (up 3%) as the most important problem facing Australia.

Some 11% of Australians mentioned a Social Issue as the most important problem facing Australia. The two most important Social Issues mentioned were Education 3% (unchanged) and Social apathy/ Family breakdown/ Selfishness/ Moral decline 3% (up 1%).

Environmental issues are mentioned by just 10% (down 3%) of Australians as the most important problem facing Australia. The most important Environmental Issues mentioned are Climate Change/ Global Warming 6% (down 3%) and Other Environmental issues 3% (up 1%).

Analysis by State

Analysing by State shows different problems rated as most important across different States.

The biggest World problems are Economic & Financial issues (34%, up 1% since October 2013). Within the broad group of Economic issues, Poverty/ the Gap between the Rich and Poor was mentioned by 14% (up 4%) followed by the Economy/ Economic problems/ Interest rates 8% (down 4%) ahead of Unemployment (4%, up 1%) and Overpopulation (3%, down 1%).

Next were Environmental Issues mentioned by 23% of Australians (down 7%) as the next biggest problem facing the World today. The most important Environmental issue is clearly Climate Change/ Global warming 13% (down 5%) followed by Famine/ Food shortages 5% (unchanged) and other Environmental Issues 4% (up 1%).

Social Issues are the next biggest problem according to Australians, 13% (up 4%). Social Apathy/ Family Breakdowns/ Selfishness/ Moral decline was mentioned by 5% (up 2%) and 3% (up 1%) mentioned Greed/ Materialism.

Terrorism/ Wars/ Security and Safety are mentioned by 11% (up 1%) led by Wars and Conflicts 7% (up 2%).

Michele Levine, CEO Roy Morgan says:

“It is no surprise that the latest Roy Morgan qualitative and quantitative research shows Economic and Financial Issues are once again the ‘most important problems’ facing Australia (39%, down 1% since October 2013) and the World (34%, up 1%) early in 2014.

“The New Year has begun with a raft of announcements by businesses cutting back on their Australian operations – Toyota announced it would cease manufacturing cars in Australia in 2017, following General Motors Holden and Ford who both announced the closure of their Australian car manufacturing plants last year. The closure of these car manufacturing operations will leave thousands of Australians out of work. In addition, this week Alcoa announced it will close parts of its Australian operations this August – leaving a further 1,000 Australians out of work.

“Looking on a State level shows The Economy/ Economic problems/ Interest rates is the biggest problem facing Queensland (15%) and New South Wales (14%) while Unemployment is clearly the biggest problem facing Victoria (19%), and also a huge problem for Tasmania (18%), Queensland (11%) and South Australia (10%). Victoria and South Australia are traditionally home to Australia’s manufacturing industry which has been heavily impacted by many of the job losses. The biggest issue in Western Australia is Refugees and Asylum seeker problems (14%).

These findings come from a special Roy Morgan telephone survey conducted in Australia on attitudes towards issues facing Australia and the World in the future.

In Australia, a cross-section of 664 men and women aged 14 or over were interviewed by telephone on the nights of February 4-6, 2014. Respondents were asked: “Firstly, what do you think is the most important problem facing the World today?” and “What do you think is the most important problem facing Australia today?”

The research conducted was both qualitative (in that people were asked to use their own words) and quantitative (in that the ‘open-ended’ responses were analysed and ‘coded’ so that the results could be counted and reported as percentages).

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